Church’s history of not listening

Don Krotee

A recent letter in the Daily Pilot about St. Andrew’s Church and its

expansion plans, “Maybe church needs a satellite facility,” prompts

revisiting of two very important points.

First, the church member and writer suggesting that St. Andrew’s

tear down Dierenfield Hall and replace it with a gym has quite a good

idea. A great irony is that this idea is the centerpiece of the

joint-neighborhoods compromise that was rejected by St. Andrew’s

during negotiations last fall and winter.

Those who followed the Planning Commission hearings will remember

our PowerPoint presentation offering and detailing a proposal that

joined the new gym with the reconstruction of Dierenfield Hall as a

single gathering space -- capable of feeding the masses and a good

game of basketball, albeit not at the same time.

What many of the parishioners don’t realize is that the idea

(which doesn’t make the campus expand) was interpreted by the

building folks at St. Andrew’s as just not big enough. In our

negotiating meetings, they referred to this as a nonproject. In this

way, good ideas gave way to one of the most divisive and selfish

overbuilding projects in the history of any neighborhood.

The second point the author makes is suggesting that St. Andrew’s

construct a satellite facility. Unfortunately this is another great

idea blown off by St. Andrew’s. The church has a history of saying no

to any development off site. As recently as two months ago, I sent an

idea to the church’s lobbyist that I thought St. Andrew’s might

approach the school district for its excess school site on Banning

Ranch for a youth ministry site for the gym and the youth programs. I

was told that the school district wanted too much for the land. “Too

much what?” I thought as St. Andrew’s offered the district $3.5

million later that month for 80 parking spaces at Newport Harbor High

School.

Now, the huge expansion proposal goes back to the Planning

Commission, with a larger concrete parking garage. This is necessary

to park more cars, after the district tabled the St. Andrew’s

$3.5-million offer for the 80 spaces. The school board naturally

prefers that St. Andrew’s settle its land-use issues and that it get

rid of the large and divisive expansion. It seems that everyone wants

a more reasonable size or has a better idea than St. Andrew’s.

* DON KROTEE is president of the Newport Heights Improvement Assn.